VIA MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL
Chris Caroll’s photo from Missouri’s sex offender registry.
A Missouri businessman who was already facing charges of fraudulently obtaining COVID-relief funds is now facing additional charges of witness tampering and violating the Clean Air Act.
Chris Carroll and his business partner George Reed were originally indicted in September 2021 for six counts of money laundering and three counts of bank fraud. The pair received $2.8 million in allegedly fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loans.
According to that indictment, the two men applied for the loans using their wives’ names in order to not have to disclose Carroll’s status as a felon. (He is a registered sex offender.)
Furthermore, the two men did not use the relief money to keep people employed at their company, Square One Group, which helps clients exit time share agreements. Instead, federal prosecutors allege, the two men stopped paying their employees altogether and used the money to start Whiskey Dix Trucking Repair company in Bourbon, Missouri, compensating themselves to the tune of $660,000.
Yesterday, federal prosecutors announced further charges against Carroll, accusing Whiskey Dix Trucking Repair of illegally taking the emissions control systems off of more than 30 trucks, causing them to release more pollutants in their exhaust.
Additionally, according to the most recent indictment, Carroll asked multiple Whiskey Dix employees to “take the fall” for the Clean Air Act violations.
According a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, “When one of the employees indicated that he was going to talk to federal investigators, Chris Carroll threatened not to pay for the employee’s attorney.”
In an RFT round up of COVID-relief fraud from last year, Carrol and Reed’s alleged nearly $3 million dollar COVID-relied fraud was the largest of its kind in the Eastern District of Missouri at the time.
According to court filings, Carroll referred to the Paycheck Protection Program loan money as “free dollars.”
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